Why bluegrass music has a home in Florida
A 1952 radio program called Suwannee River Jamboree, The Stanley Brothers moving to Florida in 1958, and the building of a music park in 1985 all put Live Oak, Florida on the map for bluegrass music.
Live traditional country and folk music has had a home and a following in Live Oak, Florida for more than seven decades — though sometimes with fits and starts. Today, a big part of of the area’s music scene is Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, designed as a premier music venue for music fans and nature lovers alike. Home to dozens of music festivals throughout the year — Suwannee Roots Revival, Resonate Suwannee, The Rendezvous, Suwannee Roots Revival, and Hulaween, to name a few — Spirit of The Suwannee Park is hosting musical artists from every genre imaginable. The Suwannee Roots Revival October 9-12 and the Suwannee Spring Reunion are two annual festivals at the Live Oak, Florida park that showcase contemporary bluegrass bands, and honor past artists as well. Getting to this point in musical history has quite a story.
It started in 1952 when Suwannee River Jamboree radio program hit the airwaves.
In November 1952 the Suwannee River Jamboree radio broadcast debuted on WNER (a Live Oaks, Florida station then) featuring live bluegrass and folk music performances from a high school auditorium. About 250 people attended that first program, which featured 16 performers and lasted for an hour and a half. Initially, the program was scheduled as a monthly event, but it was so well received that it quickly went to a bi-weekly format, and then weekly. To promote the Jamboree, a half-hour portion of each program was recorded and sent out to surrounding radio stations. By May of 1954, fourteen stations were carrying the preview edition of the show. The program was moved to a tobacco warehouse that accommodated 1,200 seated.
In the summer 1957, it was tobacco season, and the warehouses that had served as music venues for the show for the previous four years were needed for tobacco sales. A decision was made to take the show on the road until tobacco season was over. Unfortunately, in the show’s absence from Live Oak, interest waned and Suwannee River Jamboree was cancelled.
The Stanley Brothers make a home in Florida
The Stanley Brothers — Carter and Ralph — were born in the mountains of southwestern Virginia in Dickenson County. They learned most of their early music at home. Their mother played the claw hammer banjo and their father was a gifted singer of old time songs. The boys acquired instruments in their early teen years and began playing the music of old-time performers they heard on the radio. After WWII, Carter and Ralph organized their band, which became known as The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys. They performed briefly over radio station WNVA in Norton, Virginia in 1946, and then moved to Bristol to headline WCYB’s Farm & Fun Time broadcast for twelve years. While in Bristol they made their first recordings for an independent label called Rich-R-Tone. In 1949 they began a four-year association with Columbia Records. This is where many of their well-known songs like “The White Dove,” “The Lonesome River,” and “The Fields Have Turned Brown” were recorded. In 1955, they recorded the famous tune “Angel Band” on the Mercury label that was used in the movie O Brother! Where Art Thou? Aside from Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys who invented the bluegrass sound, The Stanley Brothers became a popular bluegrass icon in the 1950s. Around 1970, two boys in Kentucky — Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley — caught the attention of the public mimicking The Stanley Brothers note-for-note, and ultimately got their professional careers in music started with Ralph Stanley’s band (Carter Stanley had passed away in 1966).
To bring the Jamboree program back to its previous glory, in 1958 The Stanley Brothers were invited to move to Live Oak, Florida to headline the weekly program and do some other performances to support a patron, Jim Walter Homes, a construction company that specialized in pre-fab homes. The studios of WNER in Live Oak became a de facto recording studio for the Stanley Brothers when they needed to send some masters to Starday Records in Nashville. They did at least three sessions there, producing a total of twelve masters that were released. Attaching the Stanley Brothers name to the Suwannee River Jamboree helped to promote attendance to the performances for a couple of years, but having the same artists week after week failed to sustain it. Also, bandmembers were suffering from homesickness being away from their families in the mountains of Virginia. The program closed a second time, which was probably welcomed by The Stanley Brothers band members. Despite the cancellation of Suwannee River Jamboree, audio tapes of Suwannee River Jamboree broadcasts featuring The Stanley Brothers from 1958 to 1962 are preserved in the Florida State Archives and describe the program as “Florida’s largest and best known country music show.” Archives note the Jamboree was billed as “The Deep South’s Country Music Show.” Recordings of the 1958-1962 shows were rebroadcast to promote the 1984 Suwannee Jamboree Homecoming Concert held at Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center near Live Oak, Florida.
The Stanley Brothers’ most popular song is recorded in Florida
For two brothers raised in southwestern Virginia, forsaking the mountains of Appalachia for the flatlands of Florida made them feel like outsiders. They joined a church and tried to fit in. Ralph’s wife began to work at the local diner. Their sideman, George Shuffler, took a room in Live Oak for several years after renting a house so his wife and children could be with him in Florida. “They didn’t like it and went back to the mountains,” George recalled. He took up fishing. When the musicians had days off, they hung out at the gas station across from the post office.
At a performance in Live Oak, two young entrepreneurs, Tom Markham and Tom Rose, approached Carter and Ralph about recording at their new studio in Jacksonville. The timing was right. The brothers needed to make good on their agreement with Starday. They had been with Columbia and Mercury, but when record sales did not meet expectations, neither company renewed their contract. Recording for major labels, the brothers worked with experienced producers and engineers in well-equipped facilities. Magnum Studios in Jacksonville was a 20’ x 20’ space in a wooden garage with a concrete slab floor. Recording at Magnum, the brothers made do, moving microphones around until they got the sound they wanted. They recorded 15 or 20 songs, choosing 12 to send to Starday. One of the songs was “Rank Stranger.”
Every element in this version of “Rank Stranger” is familiar to folks who know the music of The Stanley Brothers, except the one that makes the song unique among the brothers’ recordings — the deliberate contrast between Carter’s gentle singing of the verses and Ralph’s piercing wail on the chorus. Ralph recalled what he and Carter had in mind: “We wanted it to be like somebody surprising you from behind. Like somebody waking you up and everything seems different and you don’t know if you’re awake or still dreaming.” When recorded in 1960, the Stanley Brothers’ version of “Rank Stranger” did not seem as special as it does today. The recording was made without a professional engineer or producer. The recordings from the session sounded thin, and recording levels varied. The genius of the brothers was in keeping the arrangement simple — three voices, two guitars, a bass, and mandolin. The instrumentation supported Carter and Ralph’s vocals without intruding.
Released as a 45-rpm single and on the album “Sacred Songs of the Hills,” the Stanley Brothers’ recording of “Rank Stranger” introduced an exceptional song from the Southern gospel tradition into the repertoire of country music and bluegrass. Country royalty covered the song. Carl Story, known as “The Father of Bluegrass Gospel Music,” recorded “Rank Stranger” in 1963. Kitty Wells, “Queen of Country Music,” covered it in her straightforward style. Nashville traditionalist Ricky Skaggs included “Rank Stranger” on his 1997 tribute to old-time country and bluegrass, “Bluegrass Rules.” In the early 1970s, Ricky got his start at age 18 as a member of Clinch Mountain Boys alongside Ralph Stanley. Ralph wrote in his autobiography, “I reckon it became the most popular song the Stanley Brothers ever sung. They holler for it everywhere I’ve ever played. I don’t care where we’ve been in the world, if I mention ‘Rank Stranger’ on the stage, you’re going to hear from the crowd. It’s one of those songs you know will always be sung somewhere, by somebody.”
Revisiting the Jamboree, again
In 1963, Carter and Ralph Stanley got together with local residents B.W. and Gladys Deese to re-open the show. The Deeses built a new barn on their property just south of town on U.S. 129. The revamped program featured a number of the same performers: the Stanley Brothers, LeRoy McDaniel and Johnnie Bonds, Uncle Oscar Swails, and a host of others. Newcomers included Dean and Marie Bence, a husband/wife duo from Jacksonville who performed on mandolin and guitar.
The 1963-’64 season included guest artists Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, the Masters Family, the Lewis Family, the Louvins, as well as several novelty acts such as the Live Oak Beatles and Stonewall Turnipseed (Leroy McDaniel). Ads for the programs stressed the family friendly atmosphere. Indeed, Mrs. Deese and daughter Sam served up hot dogs and other refreshments for the attendees. Sam was a pre-teen during the early days of the “New Barn” and was a classmate of Carter’s oldest daughter, Doris. She has fond memories of riding the bus to Jacksonville with Bill Monroe.
The Cornetts develop a new music destination.
In 1979, Suwannee County undertook the building of a new community park located several miles north of Live Oak on U.S. 129. But by 1984, the park was closed due to a lack of resources, and the County was anxious to unload it.
Enter Bob and Jean Cornett. In 1974, the couple had started the Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY, an event that would later win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s award for Bluegrass Event of the Year. With success in starting a music festival from scratch in Kentucky, they were inspired to try that on the property Suwannee County had abandoned. The Cornetts signed a 16-year lease for the property with an option to buy.
The owner of the park today, James Cornett, is the son of the park’s founders and has taken every step possible to ensure his parents’ legacy lives on. With the park open year round for vacationers and music fans alike, Cornett hears from folks daily about the important relationships forged in the park and the ongoing impact it has on its many guests.
Remembered James Cornett, “They had been looking for a campground property for a while. They went down to Florida for a family reunion and heard about the Suwannee property. It was pretty much mothballed. The security guard came and opened it up for them. There were trees down, and the roads and infrastructure we have built up over the years didn’t exist, but they fell in love with it anyway. My parents put on a dog and pony show for the county who were the owners and talked their way into a lease with an option to buy the place. One thing led to another, but they pulled it off. It took a lot of time, effort, and all the money they could raise, but they pulled it off.”
Cornett remembers his parents’ first attempts to make a go of promoting a music festival. “I was twelve when they did their first concert in Lexington, Kentucky. Prior to that, I guess I was eight or nine years old when they started bringing me and my brothers and some of our friends around the country to festivals. After seeing how so many different festivals were being done, they concluded — like a lot of people seem to do — that they could do it better. The first show they produced was a complete flop. They had Doc Watson headlining it, and he played to 200 people. It was not good. Monday morning, their first order of business was to go to the bank to raise enough money to make sure the checks were good. They got stung pretty good there. It was probably the fifth year when they started making a profit.”
They wasted no time in starting to make a return on their investment. On April 11-12, 1986, they staged their first Spirit of the Suwannee Bluegrass Festival. An advertisement for one of the early festivals extolled the virtues of the park: “Our beautiful 500-acre park [is situated] here along the Suwannee River in north Florida. Bring your fishing gear, because the Suwannee, one of the cleanest rivers in the world, has excellent fishing. And bring your walking gear, because we have many miles of trails where you can enjoy nature.”
Significantly, the first festival featured two of the bluegrass performers who figured most prominently in Live Oak’s country music history: Ralph Stanley and Jim & Jesse. Other headliners included the Lost & Found, Orange Blossom Bluegrass, the New Coon Creek Girls, and others. A fall festival took place in October and included contemporary artists such as Tony Rice and Doyle Lawson.
Starting with the 1988-’89 winter season, the park began featuring regular Saturday night concerts. Top names in the business were frequently booked: the Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene, Jim & Jesse, Chuck Wagon Gang, the Lewis Family, as well as regionally popular groups, the Boys From Indiana and Paul Adkins.
In the 1990s, in addition to the Cornetts’ own regularly scheduled events, the Spirit of the Suwannee became home to events that were partnered with other promoters. The year 1996 saw the first MagnoliaFest, the brainchild of the Jacksonville Beach duo of Randy and Beth Judy. It added a new dimension to the park’s activities by featuring a “flavorful, rich blend of new and traditional folk, bluegrass, newgrass, roots rock, alternative country, singer/songwriter, rhythm & blues, Cajun, and Celtic music, plus a few things that defy description.”
The Judys also launched Springfest, a similar event dedicated to featuring the “world’s finest performers in new and traditional folk, roots rock, bluegrass & newgrass, singer/songwriter, acoustic blues, Cajun/zydeco, and other forms of American roots music.” Over the years, top name performers have included Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley, Tony Rice, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, former Byrds Chris Hillman & Roger McGuinn, and Earl Scruggs. A 2007 documentary called Music Farmers: Sowing The Seeds Of Americana highlighted Béla Fleck, Derek Trucks, Guy Clark, the late Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan, The Waybacks, and others. Significantly, the film was shown on 175 PBS stations nationwide. The event has grown to have more than 7,000 attendees.
With all of the activities taking place at the Spirit of the Suwannee, yearly attendance averages 500,000 people. The Cornetts feel the growth has come from “taking care of the customer.” For their own special productions and partnered events, Florida Monthly magazine cited the Spirit of the Suwannee as the “Best Live Music Venue in Florida” (2009), displacing Disney as the top spot. Indeed, the park has become a valuable asset to the community, employing 70 full-time employees and as many as 500 part-timers during big events and bringing a significant amount of tourist money to the area. The town of Live Oak honored the Cornetts for their activities.
A Rolling Stone story about Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park
In 2023, a story by Garret K. Woodward was published in Rolling Stone titled “How a Remote Florida Park Became a Bluegrass Hotbed.” The author revealed some insights into why Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park is unique in remarks by artists who play there and attendees.
“The way they light this place up at night, it’s like some big mushroom dream,” Jerry Douglas, who hit the stage with the Earls of Leicester, commented. “This place is fun, and the crowd here is with you — they always let you know they’re with you.”
“Not all stages are created equal, and it can be challenging at times to hear well as a performer. But the stage at Suwannee has the intimacy of a playing a beautiful theater,” said one musician, nodding to the natural bowl setting of the amphitheater.
There’s a deep sense of family and fellowship that’s permeated Suwannee as far back as anyone can remember. Peter Rowan, the 80-year-old bluegrass legend, is a Suwannee staple and points out that icons like Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and Jim & Jesse all played in the shade of the live oaks going back to the 1950s.
“This has always been a bluegrass park,” Peter Rowan reflected. “When I first started playing here over 30 years ago, I remember hearing the tree frogs through the night. And there was an owl that nested near the amphitheater, where each time we’d play, it’d fly across in front of the stage.” When asked just why bluegrass has had such a foothold in this seemingly desolate landscape of Florida for so many years, Rowan points to the Stanley Brothers. “In the late 1950s, Carter and Ralph Stanley moved to Live Oak, ultimately headlining the WNER Suwannee River Jamboree radio program from 1958 to 1962.” Rowan also recalled the times playing at Suwannee with fiddle great Vassar Clements, who died in 2005. Clements, a native of the Florida Panhandle, viewed Suwannee as his musical home base.
“There’s this unique, communal spirit here, where it’s homelike for us,” says Sam Bush. “And you find yourself thinking about some of our brethren that aren’t here anymore, but especially Vassar — he ruled this place.”
Lots of nature to experience
James Cornett pointed out some of the natural attractions: “We have the Johnny Dame Spring — it’s pretty hidden — with natural spring water right from the earth that’s crystal clear. We also have Apache Wells, which is a waterfall. It doesn’t run all the time, but when it does it’s gorgeous. There is Resse Lake. It doesn’t get any prettier than that cypress-lined spring-fed lake. Oh, and everyone loves the ‘Bat House.’ The bats take off and the sky darkens, and they get out and eat bad bugs. That’s why we don’t have many mosquitoes in Suwannee. There is plenty of nature to enjoy — tons of trails for hiking and horseback riding. I have an older brother who is an avid horseback rider. He tours the country with his horses, and he has ridden in practically every state. He swears that the park and the Suwannee River Water Management, which owns thousands of acres that adjoin us, is the best place in the country to ride. You can ride for literally days without riding on the same trail. There are around twelve miles here in the park, but if you go to the Water Management trails, there are thousands of acres, and you can just go practically forever.”
And the property fronts three miles of the Suannee River made famous by the song by Stephen Foster, “Old Folks at Home.”
Clearly Live Oak has had a long and colorful involvement with bluegrass, country, folk, and other forms of traditional music. Just as the leaves of the live oaks are ever green, the music at Live Oak is ever heard. For sixty years, locals and visitors have been treated to vast array of topnotch talent, from the Suwannee River Jamboree and bluegrass greats Jim & Jesse and the Stanley Brothers to the old Jamboree Barn and the Cornetts and their Spirit of the Suwannee.
The Spirit of the Suwannee draws folks from all over the world who come together to make great music, enjoy good times, and to build a great community. “That’s what living is all about,” says James Cornett. That’s what founders Bob and Jean Cornett envisioned, and their legacy lives on.